2017 inductee
Nanine Lawrence Pond
Nanine Lawrence Pond holds the record by far as the longest serving regent of the Freelove Baldwin Stow Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, from 1915 to 1946. She died in 1950. It was during her regency that the local DAR bought the crumbling Eels-Stowe House on Wharf Lane, built in 1670 and threatened with demolition. This led to the birth of the Milford Historical Society to preserve it. Pond then became the society’s first vice president and a life member.
Nanine was born in Paris, France May 8, 1869. Nanine is French for Nancy. Her parents were Joseph Lawrence of New London, a sea captain, and Sarah Gillette Pond Hepburn (originally married to Henry Lewis Hepburn before he died) of Milford. So she spent most of her childhood, as well as the rest of her life after marrying into the Pond family, traveling back and forth to see families in New London and Milford. Nanine was followed by two sisters. Their mother died when the girls were aged 6, 5 and 3 . Joseph oversaw their upbringing since both grandmothers were deceased. A family member later noted: “In an age when social etiquette was ascending in importance, rules strictly enforced, consequences unmerciful, it is doubtful Nanine’s upbringing was anything other than strict and proper.”
Her father, Joseph, died in 1893 when she was 24. Three years later she married Nicholas Misplee Pond of Milford. They were first cousins, a practice not unheard of at the time, since her mother, Sarah, and Nicholas’ father, Nathan Gillette Pond, were brother and sister. Nicholas ran a rattan business, based on imports from the Far East. They raised their family of two girls and two boys in Milford in a handsome house with large acreage on Welch’s Point. The property was large enough to handle a runway for small airplanes installed by their son, Joseph Lawrence, who took over ownership until selling the house and property in the mid-1940’s. The property was later sold off into house lots along a street named Point Lookout.
In 1910 one of her father’s unmarried brothers, Sebastian, left Nanine a sizeable fortune, approximately $3 million. This was part of a $9 million bequest that went to her and her two sisters. She became a prominent benefactor for many recipients from that time on. They included a tuberculosis sanitarium in New York’s Adirondacks and sending an occasional freight railcar full of clothing and food to an Indian reservation in Arizona.
Sebastian’s will also provided $100,000 for a hospital which came to be known as Lawrence and Memorial Hospital, and $400,000 in permanent trust to fund it. The hospital opened in 1912. In 1924 she gave $60,000 for a nursing school dormitory, called Pond House. The building served that purpose until 1976, later housing a psychiatric unit on the third floor and administrative offices on the first two.
She also did much for Milford. During her 31-year term as DAR regent she oversaw the creation of the Milford Historical Society in 1930. At its creation she became a life member. It was she who suggested in November 1929 that funds needed to be raised to save the Eells-Stow House, threated with demolition, since it was one of the oldest houses in town and had several unique architectural features. The society was organized May 19, 1930 of which she became a part. The first task of the new society was to maintain the property from then on.
family, some still living in Milford, are of the same lineage. The “e” was added with the publishing of Webster’s Dictionary in the early 1800’s to assure that the name would be properly pronounced.
In 1931 Nicholas died and she took up residence in the top residential floor of the Mohegan Hotel in New London. She died February 7, 1950 in Lawrence & Memorial Hospital from complications of a hip fracture and is buried next to her husband in the Pond family plot in Milford.
Fred Lisman
Frederick Louis Lisman was born in Wilkes Barre, PA, then moving with his family to the East Rock Section of New Haven where he grew up. He graduated from St. Mary’s High School in New Haven, the Fairfield University class of 1960 then onto Purdue for his Ph.D. in nuclear physical chemistry in 1965.
While at Purdue he also met his wife, Barbara, whom he married in June of 1962. They went to Idaho Falls, Idaho, where he worked for Phillips Petroleum as senior scientist at the National Reactor Test Station and taught in the graduate degree program for employees.
When a position opened up at Fairfield University, he came back to Connecticut to Barbara’s home town, Milford, and taught chemistry as an associate professor for 19 years, as well as several years as chairman of the Chemistry Department.
Fred entered Milford politics embracing it and his adopted home town. He was coach, manager, and commissioner of the Milford Junior Major League and founding member and past president of the Northwest Neighborhood Association. Lisman was on the Milford Hospital Board of Directors, and was co-chair, along with Barbara, of the Red Cross Building Campaign.
In November 1989 he was elected Milford’s eighth mayor. He had earned his way to the political top as a Republican member of the Planning & Zoning Board, Board of Finance, and Board of Aldermen. He was a skilled aldermanic opposition leader and held multiple committee chairmanships. He was a member of the Milford Golf Commission and South Central Connecticut Regional Council of Governments.
He even took on the reconstruction of Milford High School into city offices for the Democratic party mayor of the time.
Lisman enjoyed being mayor during his six terms, proving to be a good manager and keeping the city credit rating high while consolidating public services to make them more efficient. He was usually the smartest person in the room, and usually the most politically savvy.
Among his most lasting accomplishments is the municipal golf course off North Street, The Orchards, and the Head of the Harbor project downtown, now known as Lisman Landing. Both are enjoyed to this day by the citizenry.
The harbor project was his most masterful political accomplishment. After years of being blocked, the Harbor Commission and Zoning Board finally approved it. The state Department of Environmental Protection did not. They loved the scenery, the handicapped access and all the plans, just not the marina and the dredging that came with it.
The DEP cited tidal flatland law and the presence of certain marine worms. They weren’t protected species but the state reasoned that some unknown and unidentified endangered species “might want to eat them.”
Fred went into action. He asked a Democratic state legislator to float a rumor in Hartford that he was to be named the new DEP Commissioner in the then recently elected Rowland administration. It was not true, but when the head of the DEP and the recalcitrant DEP “experts,” along with a who’s who of Milford leaders, met in the mayor’s office, the rumor was not denied.
The DEP head, not wanting to irk his prospective boss, asked the staffers if the tidal wetlands were flat? No, there was a slight slope they said. He then directed them to shut up as he determined the tidal flatlands rules did not apply, at least to the West side of the harbor. Fred looked like the cat that swallowed the canary as the project was approved.
Politics were never personal with Mayor Lisman and he could work with and even respect the other side of an issue. Doris Gagnon passed away in 1994 after having gained national attention in the early 1990s when she fought the state’s efforts to evict her and her animals from the proposed Silver Sands State Park site.
She lived as a squatter after the state demolished her former house in 1971 through eminent domain. “Doris fought the city of Milford, the state and the federal government and she basically won,” Lisman said in a 1994 interview recalling Gagnon. “She fought for what she believed in.”
Fred Lisman died after a battle against cancer, leaving a large, loving and proud family, most of whom are no longer living in the Milford area.
Harrison & Gould
Harrison’s breaks a tradition of the Milford Hall of Fame. It is not a person. Even if Charles W. Harrison and Alfred E. Gould founded it in 1907, “Harrisons,” as it came to be known, is remembered less for the people than for what the place came to mean to the Milford community.
Harrison and Gould were so successful that competitors arrived. The Milford Hardware Company set up in a then modern two-story building to the east on Broad Street best known today as the last home of Hebert Jewelers. It is long gone, as Harrison’s weathered all competition until the arrival of the big box stores, Home Depot and Lowes.
Both men were experienced hardware men. Harrison had worked seven years for Bronson & Townsend in New Haven before joining 10-year man Gould at Lightbourn & Pond Co. for an additional five years. From their posts they were able to assess the needs of the small community nine miles west and on the main line to Bridgeport eight miles further.
Harrison & Gould founded their hardware store in downtown Milford concentrating on good management, broad inventory, fair prices and personal service. Their operation was so successful that their activities made up a whole chapter in a business education text. The personal service model was carried on to Harrison’s end under the Miller brothers as an Ace Hardware outlet.
Milford of 1907 was a small town of about 3,000 people and something more than double that during summer. Makings its point H&G proudly advertised that they were “Open year round.” They also “delivered the goods” with a well-stocked horseless delivery truck. By the twenties, a Socony gas pump graced the front sidewalk and Harrison’s stocked all kinds of auto parts. A satellite store was set up in downtown Devon.
Harrison’s is well remembered for its large and eclectic inventory, wavy wood floors and personal service. Try to match a certain screw and a friendly employee would descend into the basement to find its match, then charge the eight cents required. It was a retail model we will never see again.
On January 22, 2006, a fire broke out. Water from the sprinklers and fire department did the most damage. Attempts to reopen and compete with the big box stores failed. Hoping to restore the hardware store, Milford Broad Street, LLC, bought the site for $450,000 but restoring the hardware store would not happen.
In repurposing the site for restaurant use, Colony Grill tore down and replaced the front, and oldest, part of the building while storage sheds at the rear of the building were removed for a dining patio. Colony Grill opened in 2013.
There has been some confusion about the location of the Harrison’s building and its heritage. This is largely due to the innocently misleading captions placed on the fabulous photos of Milford that Dan Moger placed on his calendars. Here are the facts. The original building was built around 1900 and was fairly small at 20-feet wide by 50-feet deep. It was occupied by Joseph “Doc” Barnes’ pharmacy and upstairs by Mrs. Merwin’s millinery.
By 1905, Doc had moved two doors east (now Shoreline Mortgage / Spalthoff) while Mrs. Merwin moved to where One New Haven Avenue stands today. J.H. Barnes’ pharmacy at his new site was never a Harrison’s location - but after H&G arrived Doc was wise enough to give up hardware sales in favor of ice cream.
Harrison & Gould took the entire “old” building in 1907 then 22 Broad Street (later 40 Broad). Six years later in 1913, the “new” building was widened by 8 feet and lengthened by 30. The resulting off-center entry remained the same until the building was torn down.
About 1920, the building was enlarged again to 150 feet in length and thereafter a 90-foot warehouse adjacent to the main building was added.
Catherine “Kay” N. Pollard
broke gender barrier in the Boy Scouts
Kay Pollard served her community in many capacities, but it was a legal fight to be recognized as the scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 13 in Milford that made national news and ultimately paved the way for female scoutmasters.
When no male leader was available to head up Troop 13, Pollard stepped in. She let the troop from 1973 until 1976, and when the national Boy Scouts of America refused to recognize her as a scoutmaster, she filed a complaint with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.
Pollard won a favorable ruling from the state commission but it sparked a lengthly legal battle.
The BSA’s policy of mail only scoutmasters was upheld by a state superior court judge in May 1986, who ruled the BSA had the right to make its own rules since it was a private organization.
The state Supreme Court later reaffirmed that ruling.
Pollard had a long history of active involvement in scouting, as a merit badge counselor, a Cub Scout den mother, and as a Troop 13 committee member, according to her lawsuit.
She had acted as de facto scoutmaster for Troop 13 when it lacked an official leader and also served as an assistant Scoutmaster. Pollard had applied twice to be named the official troop leader but has been rejected both times by the BSA.
Under her direction, the members of truth 13 has made satisfactory progress through the established Boy Scout ranks, the lawsuit stated.
Troop 13 was later disbanded when no male leader could be found, but the BSA officially recognized Pollard as its first female scoutmaster when the policy was changed in 1988.
“I do think that this is marvelous”, she told the New Haven Register at the time, “because there have been women all over the United States, in fact all over the world who have been doing these things for the Boy Scouts because they could not get a male leader, but we could not get recognition”.
Troop #13 was reactivated after the BSA dropped its gender restrictions, with Pollard as it' official scoutmaster.
Pollard or also had served the Milford fire department as a volunteer for many years, and as the department’s official bugler. She played “taps” at many firefighters’ funerals.
She was born in Hartford on June 25, 1918 and taught music for 25 years in the Orange public schools, as well as giving private lessons.
Pollard also enjoyed motorcycling, supporting veterans issues and raising chickens, according to her obituary. She was a member of the V.F.W. Ladies Auxiliary.
She died on December 11, 2006, in Largo, FL, and at her funeral a week later in Milford, Pollard's casket was carried on city fire truck. She is buried in Kings Highway cemetery.
Joseph Roswell Hawley
Although he was not born in Milford, Joseph Roswell Hawley would become one of the most famous residents of Woodmont, Milford and Connecticut. His career was impressive. He was a gifted writer and public speaker. He served as a governor of Connecticut, as well as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator. He was an attorney, newspaper editor and distinguished Civil War hero.
Born in Stewartsville, NC, on Halloween in 1826, Hawley was the son of Mary McLeod and the Reverend Francis Hawley. Hawley’s mother was born in Fayetteville, NC, and his father was born in Farmington, CT. His father had gone to North Carolina as a traveling salesman and he later became a Baptist minister.
Rev. Hawley was strongly opposed to slavery and, as a result was threatened by individuals and mobs in the South. He returned to Connecticut with his family when Joseph was 11. But his father’s abolitionist stance had a strong influence on his son’s character and politics.
The Hawleys, with Joseph and his two sisters, settled in Connecticut. Joseph attended Hartford Grammar School and graduated from Hamilton College, NY, in 1847. He studied law with John Hooker, was admitted to the bar in 1850 and joined Hooker as a partner in his Hartford firm.
From his law office, he founded the Connecticut Republican party in 1856, along with several prominent politicians. At the time, it was a liberal party, in particular, a faction known as the Radical Republicans, who were committed to emancipation of the slaves, and later, equal treatment including the right to vote.
In 1857 Hawley became editor of the Hartford Evening Press, which allowed his political voice to reach a large audience and laid the foundation for what would become an impressive political career.
Hawley was an early supporter of Abraham Lincoln. After the attack by the Confederate states on Fort Sumter in South Carolina, when President Lincoln called for volunteers, Hawley was the first persons from Connecticut to enlist in the Union Army. At the age of 34, he was also one of the oldest men to enlist. But Hawley proved to be a courageous leader and a skilled tactician. He fought in 13 battles during the Civil War and rose quickly in rank. Hawley was called “Fighting Joe” for his ability to lead without fear and stir pride and patriotism in his men.
By the time he was discharged in 1866, Hawley had risen to the rank of major general. He returned to the Nook Farm neighborhood of Hartford, where he and his wife were neighbors and friends of Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe (his wife’s cousin) and other intellectuals, reformers and political leaders. He entered politics and was elected Governor of Connecticut in 1866. However, he failed in his bid to be reelected, in part due to his firm stance on full civil liberties for freed slaves.
He returned to journalism, and when his newspaper merged with the Hartford Courant in 1867, he became editor and part owner. Hawley gave the Hartford Courant a strong Radical Republican voice.
Hawley was appointed to fill a vacancy in the U.S. House of Representatives and was reelected once, serving from 1872-1875. He failed to win after that term but was reelected again in 1879, serving until 1881.
Hawley went on to serve in the U.S. Senate for 24 years (1881-1905). In the 1890s, he purchased a summer cottage on a street in Woodmont that was then called Vue de L’eau. It was renamed Hawley Avenue in his honor in the early 20th century.
Eventually Senator Hawley’s Woodmont house became his only Connecticut residence as he lived there in the summer and spent the winters in Washington, D.C. His house at 96 Hawley Avenue stood until 2016, when local preservationists failed in their attempt to prevent the house from being torn down.
Hawley was a strong, vigorous and healthy man throughout his life. He was honest to the point of bluntness, and often held uncompromising positions on social, political and moral issues. He was known as a liberal social reformer and a popular, generous, warm person. He had a reputation as a man of integrity and was a life-long supporter of the nation’s historic welcome of foreign immigrants.
Hawley married twice.
On Christmas day in 1855, he married Harriet Ward Foote Hawley. They later adopted her niece. After her death in 1886, he married English-born Elizabeth Horner, with whom he had two daughters.
Governor Joseph R. Hawley died in Washington, D.C., in 1905, and is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford. His death was national front-page news and he lay in state at the U.S. Capitol.
A few months later, the Connecticut legislature approved a bill to build a memorial in his honor on the grounds of the capitol. The Hawley Memorial is a six-foot wide bronze medallion with a profile of Hawley in military attire. The inscription reads, “Patriot, Soldier, Statesman.
